It is intended to be a 3D enhanced version
of Microsoft Powerpoint.
We admit however that our socalled .pvl format
lacks many of Powerpoint original features.
But, on the other hand, Powerpoint does not offer
many of the features we provide.
We use a simplified form of HTML, with some additional features.
A description of the origin of this approach can be found at
To realize presentations a collection filters is needed,
among which the vr-ml.flt
For how the slides are used see also:
In VRML display mode, there may be multiple levels in a slide.
Levels are used to allow for incremental presentation of the content
of slide.
Each element in a slide, may have an indication of start
and end level.
Some tags allow for a indicating automatic increments
of the start level, which is usually indicated
with level=auto.
See example makefiles for actual usage
<ul>
<li> none -- plain generation of VRML </li>
<li> -pvl -- generates pvl includes </li>
<li> -x -- creates also links for hrefs (UDF) </li>
</ul>
The VRML protos supporting the slides format must be kept simple
and basic. In some cases extra tags are needed to get the
desired result (or an approximation of that).
Also, the filtering is done on an as best as possible
basis. In some cases it will be very hard to get
what you want.
Actually, since it is a legaccy format, you're not even supposed to use
it. So, why bother.
To accomodate the various modes of formatting and
the various uses that can be made of the slide format,
we make a number of assumptions:
<ul>
<li> processing (in presentation mode) should be fast </li>
<li> the tags must be intuitive, and easy to type (keyboard-wise) </li>
<li> the tags must support a sufficiently rich rethoric repertoire </li>
</ul>
Both unnumbered and numbered list are allowed,
as in HTML
<ul>
<li> level -- with level=auto the bullets will appear in order </li>
<li> additional attributes -- UDFs </li>
</ul>
To indicate items in a list use the <li> tag.
When additional lines are need, use the line tag.
The text after a bullet or number must be on one line,
additional lines need to be indicated with a tag.
Use the <dt> and <dd> tags to create
the items for the list.
To allow for unformatted text, such as program text
the display tag is supported, which is like
the <pre> tag in HTML.
<ul>
<li> level -- with level=auto lines will appear in order </li>
<li> size -- to give the size of the text used in the display </li>
</ul>
As an example:
Note that the VRML text is automatically hidden
when using the object tag.
The include tag is a feature of the .t format.
The <vrml> and
</vrml> tags are needed if you don't want
your VRML code to be displayed in HTML.
the pvl format language
example
displaying slides
presentation level
creating slides
parameters for vr-ml.flt
afterthoughts on formatting
extra tags
beware of
on the design of the tag structure
the slide tag
<li> mode -- UDF (undocumented feature) </li>
<li> style -- generic style attribute (UDF) </li>
<li> transform attributes -- trans, scale, rotate </li>
<li> (VRML) style tags -- bgcolor, textcolor </li>
</ul>
the text tag (VRML only)
the list tags: ul and ol
beware (
the dl list tag
displays
the font tag
font abbreviations
font color abbreviations
the object tag
hiding VRML